


Down on the Farm

by bandumpster



Category: Bandom, Fall Out Boy, Panic! at the Disco, Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Alternate Universe - Farm/Ranch, Everyone Is Gay, Josh in Makeup, M/M, Patrick is a talented rider if you know what I mean, they're all high school age but it's not really a high school au so
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-15
Updated: 2017-01-29
Packaged: 2018-09-08 18:48:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 20,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8856808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bandumpster/pseuds/bandumpster
Summary: (on hold)Josh has been longing for the summer all year so that he can stay in his bed, watch Netflix, scroll his feeds and never go outside for two months. But when he finally gets his break, his family is quick to suggest he leaves for Arizona, where the Weekes, friends of the family, reside on their ranch. Something straight out of a movie. Josh is reluctant, but when his best friend is busy with his boyfriend and his parents seem to feel ashamed about him, does it seem that bad? There are sure to be some interesting people down on the farm.





	1. "Bad News."

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! I won't be doing too many notes in this one, at least not in the beginning, but here's an introduction! 
> 
> This has been a side project for a while and I figured I should post it because although I haven't gotten that far yet, I think it's pretty fun and I'd like to see where it takes me if I continue. I'm still writing on How To as well as a thousand other things, so don't worry! Hopefully I'll be able to update fairly regularly on both! See this as a nice little break from all that drama if you will.
> 
> I hope you think it's as neat of a concept as me, and that you enjoy reading it! Please leave some feedback if you want, your support is very much appreciated always!

It took a while for Josh to realize that his alarm wasn’t in his dream but in fact a real life event that he could actually turn off. He wasn’t sure if he was to be happy about it or not. 

Softly he fell back onto his bed, twirling his leg in his soft sheets and stretching his arms above his head and into the masses of pillows there and held his phone over his face. 7:10 AM, Wednesday June 1. In two days school would finally end for the summer and he could spend every minute of his life on the internet for ten weeks. Then he’d go back to hell of course, but Josh tried to live in the moment. In usual morning routine, he scrolled through his feeds. Twitter(Clowns? What’s next, rabid raccoons?), Instagram(Come on Ryan, I want to like you but this angle of your avocado sandwich isn’t working, it’s not professional), and Facebook, on which he had to speak his thoughts. Or mutter them, more like.  
“Brendon you know I love you but It’s complicated isn’t the same as I’m too much of a narcissist to settle down with one person at a time.” Josh made himself laugh a little bit. 

His room was bright already, the white walls and veils of silk tulle on the canopy bed making it look even lighter than it should at this time of day. Josh was a heavy sleeper though, and he slept almost better in bright rooms, so the summer sunlight didn’t bother him at all. 

It wasn’t a secret that Josh Dun was rich. There was no excuse to that fact, there wasn’t a single way for someone not to know that his dad worked in high position of his company and that his family lived the good life. The best life, Josh liked to think. They had a massive, white house with a big garden and a pool, owned multiple cars and had the perfect location in Beverly Hills. Josh Dun could live the rest of his life in his kitchen and stay perfectly sane and healthy, that’s how big it was. Still, to his great demise, he went to an ordinary high school. Not because they wouldn’t afford homeschooling or a private high school, but because his parents claimed it was good for him to be among lots of people and to “keep his feet on the ground”. They were wrong in that sense, being around those lowlives only made Josh want less to do with them. But he had one friend, at least. A narcissist like himself. 

After a good fifteen minutes of rolling around in his silk sheets and sighing with comfort of the golden morning, a shout came from downstairs.  
“Joshua! Get up and eat breakfast or you’ll be late!” his mother called and Josh groaned before responding.  
“Yeah, yeah! Bye mom!” he called back, probably too quietly for her to hear clearly what he said, but after a moment the door shut and Josh sighed once more, closing his eyes for a second before swiftly throwing himself out of bed and onto his feet. 

He was met by his reflection in his full-body mirror. He was only in his underwear, so before he put on his morning robe and went downstairs, he checked himself out for a second. He wasn’t very tall, and he was quite lean. Considering the amount of exercise he didn’t do it was surprising that he looked so athletic. Still, he groaned at how wrong his hair was ruffled and the tired look on his face, so he hurried away from his reflection and wrapped his silk robe around him and walked out of his room. 

The stairs swirled down in a wide spiral to the hallway which led straight into the kitchen. Josh stretched his arms and yawned with a high pitched moan and then opened a pack of toast, his eyes already starting to fall back shut. While the bread was in the toaster, he took out a mug and fought with the coffee machine for a little while before getting a latte. At last he jumped up and sat on the kitchen counter, but he could only rest for a moment.  
“Mom doesn’t like when you sit on the counter.” Ashley’s voice rang and Josh opened his eyes to see her standing in the doorframe.  
“I don’t care.” Josh answered tiredly. “You’re walking to school, aren’t you? You should get going.”  
“I’m looking for Snowflake, though. Have you seen him?” Ashley continued, walking into the kitchen to look around.  
“If I had seen the damn cat my day would already be ruined.” Josh yawned again and got a slap in the leg from his little sister, making him laugh. “Sorry, I haven’t seen him.” 

And just like that they both heard a low meow erupt from above, and lo and behold, Snowflake was sat high on top of the fridge.  
“Snowflake, come down from there!” Ashley laughed quietly, and the cat meowed again. “Ah well, stay up there then. Now I know where you are. Anyway, bye Josh.” she sighed and shrugged. Josh waved her off casually. 

The toast popped up and Josh got some coffee stuck in his throat in surprise, and after a little while of coughing he could jump down from the counter and toss the bread out and getting some butter to match. Then he could at last return to his room to eat his breakfast and then get dressed. Josh continued his browsing as he ate, not caring much for the feeds today. Joe Trohman somehow got a club going up on a Wednesday, which is something only he could do. Along with Brendon Urie, maybe. Instead he finished his breakfast quick and then sat down in the chair in front of his makeup table and mirror.  
“What to do today…” he sang to himself, digging around in the cupboard. He was way too tired and had too little time to do any contouring, but it was summer and natural looks were accepted now. So he didn’t even put on eyeliner, just some earthy tones for eyeshadow and mascara. Minimal effort to be Josh Dun, truly. He also got his hair under control, or at least what could be controlled. He needed to redye it soon, his outgrowth was almost an inch and he usually didn’t let it get that far. Still, it looked sort of cool. Josh dyed his hair hot pink, and his natural color was dark brown. When the pink faded and the sides got a little longer, he looked a little more serious. But he also looked more straight and that was unacceptable. 

To match his slightly more casual makeup, he pulled on his new jeans. Mom jeans were slowly becoming a thing again after way too long to actually make a comeback(but at least it didn’t crash and burn miserably like the returned bootcut did), but he sort of liked wearing high waisted, surprisingly. Otherwise he was known for almost suggesting low cuts, but at least they were ripped on the knees. Lastly he put on a white, knitted, long-sleeved shirt and tucked it in and complimented with a belt. He was feeling a bit indie today, apparently. 

Checking his phone for the time, he had ten minutes to get to school. Before he had even put it back in his pocket, there was a double honk outside. Josh hated when he double honked, he could just send a text…  
“Don’t honk, people are sleeping still!” he called down from his window to see a dark figure lean back against his car.  
“Don’t tell me what to do!” the figure below shouted back and Josh saw a toothy grin under the sunglasses and sighed, closing his window again. Quickly he grabbed his bag from his bed and walked down the stairs in a rushed pace as he threw it over his shoulder. 68F? Maybe he should grab a jacket? Nah. Josh walked outside and locked the door, as he was last out as always.  
“Can’t you send a text instead of honking like a maniac? You know how to use your phone, Brendon.” Josh spoke, getting only a smirk back at that.  
“I like your makeup today, the natural looks good on you.” Brendon said instead and Josh posed a little.  
“Thank you.” he flirted sarcastically.  
“But you need to redye your hair.” 

Josh Dun and Brendon Urie had been best friends since fourth grade. In this world of peasant children without social skills, they had found each other and it was love at first sight. Most despised them, probably, but that didn’t really matter to them. Josh hopped into the passenger seat and Brendon started the engine once more. Josh had his own car, but it was smarter to go together, as Brendon drove by his house on his way to school anyway. Sometimes Josh didn’t have to be so selfish.  
Sharing slight gossip and having other pointless conversations, they made it to school in seven minutes. Three minutes to go, and students were already walking in through the main entrance. Josh and Brendon hopped out of his car and anyone who was left standing in the parking lot had already turned to look at them. The smoking grunge kids didn’t shift their eyes away, and a group of girls went quiet if not slightly giggly as Brendon didn’t pay them a glance. Josh raised his head and smiled a little, straightening himself in his heels as they clacked against the asphalt. He hadn’t bothered wearing high ones, but he was still enjoying himself. Truly, Josh and Brendon might look like polar opposites to some. One was dressed in large jeans and a bright T-shirt, had pink dyed hair and heels, while the other was dressed in skinny jeans and a leather jacket, had a pompadour quiff and his hands in his pockets. Yet they were inseparable. 

They entered the school and the same song was played again, some had nasty stares and others shy glances. They weren’t subtle, but it wasn’t like they had to be. Everyone knew Josh and Brendon, and everyone had an opinion about them. Josh caught the poisonous eyes of some girl whom he guessed was an ex of Brendon’s. While she looked ready to spit in his face, Josh smiled politely. When he turned back around, still walking in a matched and quick pace, a boy was approaching them. He had left his little group of friends who were leaning against their lockers and looking confusedly after their runaway buddy. Josh couldn’t help but sigh a little as Brendon grinned at this boy. They didn’t even say hello before sharing an unstopped kiss on the lips that lasted at least three seconds.  
“Well hello to you too.” Brendon smiled, resting his arms around the other’s waist, making him smile softly down at his...boyfriend? Josh wasn’t sure.  
“Good morning, Ryan. I liked your picture on instagram this morning, like actually. Nice angle.” Josh tried to be friendly.  
“Ah thanks. I’m tired of the 90 degree angle.” Ryan answered with his soft voice. It’s so soft it was almost annoying to listen to, like speak faster, damn it! 

Josh and Brendon barely had time for a goodbye before the school bell rang and they had to hurry off in different directions. The first time Josh met Ryan Ross he hadn’t minded him at all. Sure he was a bit vague and dressed in an...interesting way, but his eyeshadow was good and he had an adorable face. But his and Brendon’s relationship had been shaky from the beginning when he hadn’t changed his facebook status until like a week in. Then they had their ups and down, ons and offs, mistakes were made on both sides, but Brendon was determined to keep Ryan Ross around for some reason. Usually he’d never be this patient with one person. But what did Josh know, maybe he was really good in bed? Imagining that made him a little more relaxed with the thought. His best friend’s sexlife was out of his mind before he reached his class. 

The first classes went by slowly as Brendon weren’t in any of them, and Josh felt sort of lost without him sometimes. They only had one another, after all. That made him seem a little pathetic though. So he toughened up and pushed through three classes without his best friend. Then lunch came around, and as usual Brendon was waiting outside the cafeteria, staring down at his phone with both on his thumbs on the screen.  
“What?” Josh asked, walking up to him, making him jump a little.  
“Oh, Ryan’s gonna be late. The teacher has to talk to him about something, apparently.” Brendon shrugged and put the phone in his pocket.  
“Didn’t ask…” Josh muttered and looked away.  
“No, you clearly did.” Brendon responded with a laugh and pulled him inside the cafeteria by his sleeve. 

They both had brought their own lunch obviously, since the school one sucked, and Brendon kept stealing bits and pieces from Josh’s egg fried rice, ending up with a slap on the hand multiple times.  
“Why don’t you like Ryan, anyway?” Brendon asked casually, but Josh felt caught in a corner.  
“I do like Ryan. Or well-” he started, making them both laugh a little. “I dunno, he’s just...vague.” Josh shrugged. He wanted to say that he thought Ryan was pretentious and that he was still upset about him cheating on Brendon a few times, but he knew Brendon could also check those boxes so it wasn’t a fair argument. He could probably check them more, actually. But...but that was expected of Brendon.  
“I mean I don’t need you two to be best friends. Because I’m your best friend. But like, I just want you to stand him. Cause I like him.” Brendon shrugged, throwing in a green pea which Josh had never noticed he took.  
“I do stand him. I’m trying to be nice and all, maybe I can try to mean it too.” Josh joked and Brendon smiled proudly.  
“Thanks, babe.” he answered and winked. 

Speak of the devil, suddenly Ryan was in eyeshot.  
“Hi, guys.” he greeted without a smile, but kissed Brendon once again for longer than necessary when he sat down. “You’re lucky I don’t stab you for calling someone else babe.” he wiggled his eyebrows in challenge and Brendon cooed back at him.  
“Sorry, babe.” he smiled back, being ridiculously close to Ryan’s face. Ew, come on, Josh thought and tried to loudly take a bite of his food, which was difficult considering it was mostly soft vegetables and tofu. Be nice, Josh. You’re obviously going to have to deal with Ryan Ross, and if Brendon wants you to like him, then you’re just going to have to, whether you want to or not.

They finished their lunch with their comfortable conversations, and for once Josh didn’t feel like he was third-wheeling. Of course that made him kind of paranoid, because what if he had never actually third-wheeled, he just thought so because he was an egocentric, jealous narcissist all the other times? That wasn’t unlikely. Still, all of them were sort of like that, more or less. 

Josh had a few more classes that Brendon were in this time, making the time fly by fast as they talked through most of them, sitting in the back of the classroom on their phones. The teachers didn’t even try, because they knew was no good. It was the end of the semester, all the students were loud and the only reason they were still here was so that they wouldn’t get marked absent. But in two days they had summer, finally. Josh wondered what he should wear that day…

Brendon was leaning onto a locker as Josh packed together his things, babbling as he always was. That was another difference between them, Brendon could talk for hours when he hadn’t taken any meds, which he usually didn’t do at all and instead just smoked weed, but that counted as meds. Josh was more quiet, believe it or not. But as he closed the locker, Brendon suddenly looked conflicted.  
“What?” Josh asked, leaning back against his own locker while Brendon shifted in his steps.  
“You’re gonna have to walk today, I’m driving Ryan home.” he said, quite obviously trying not to look embarrassed. Now, Josh could overreact and be upset about it because Brendon always drove him home, even when he was in detention he could sneak off to do it, but Josh wasn’t going to do that. He was going to be mature and a good friend about it.  
“‘Ey, you gettin’ some?” he smirked, making Brendon almost fall onto the floor laughing. 

So Josh had to walk home, whatever. It was quite far, took almost half an hour, but he listened to Zara Larsson so it was fine. Man, Josh wished he could sing like that. What is she, 18? Either way, he was still trying not to be upset about his best friend’s relationship. He wanted so badly to be happy for them, they had been “together”(on and off) for almost a year, but he still couldn’t shake feeling like the third wheel. Why was this eating at him so much, anyway? Maybe he was worried about the summer and where Brendon’s priorities would lie then, but he shook that off. It wasn’t even that important. 

“I’m home!” Josh called as he entered his house and kicked off his shoes as well as dropped his bag onto the floor.  
“Hey, sweetie! You’re home a bit late. You didn’t get in trouble, right?” his mother asked from the kitchen, swaying back and forth as she was preparing dinner already.  
“Nah, Brendon just didn’t drive me today.” Josh answered and was then quickly up the stairs and shut in on his room, within minutes laying on his bed with his laptop opened. He stayed like this for a few hours before being called down again. 

His family were having a normal conversation around him as Josh scrolled through his Tumblr and picking at his food. What was with the Spongebob memes? First Mr. Krabs, and now this caveman thing...Josh couldn’t even remember what episode this was from. Like, who found this picture?  
“Josh, could get off your phone at the dinner table?” his mother asked and Josh took a second to reblog a picture before looking up.  
“Hm?” he asked, innocently taking a bite of his food, but just getting a snap from someone. He was about to open it when his father cut in.  
“It’s a bit rude, can’t it wait?” he asked and Josh had to force himself not to roll his eyes.  
“It’s not like I can wait an hour to open this snap, I’ll just seem stuck-up.” he answered, continuing eating, never realizing he was hungry before now.  
“Hey, we’ve been thinking about what you’ll be doing this summer, Josh.” his mother then said and Josh now looked up with curiosity.  
“...Okay.” he said unsurely, afraid of what would come next.  
“You’re going to be extremely opposed to this idea, but please hear us out. You mostly just lay in your bed all day and all night, right?” she suggested and Josh narrowed his eyes.  
“Because I can, I’ve got summer holidays.”  
“Yes of course, but...me and your father have been discussing what that does to your health, not socializing…”  
“It’s social media….” Josh argued quietly.  
“And listen, you know my old classmate who we used to visit out in Arizona when you were little? The Weekes family-” she didn’t even get to finish before Josh dropped his fork.  
“You’re not serious.” he groaned.  
“Son, listen. They’ve built up their house really nicely, it’s a real’ fancy ranch and we think-” his father tried, but Josh was already shooting his chair out.  
“No, you’re actually fucking kidding me. You can’t just send me off to a fucking farm in Arizona for the whole summer!” he exclaimed, standing up. Luckily his little siblings had already left the table.  
“Josh, don’t run off. Just listen.” his mother said softly and only that made Josh stay, he’d feel terrible if he slammed the door in her face, so instead he sighed and clenched his fists. “Now that they’ve upgraded the entire place, it’s so nice. Leann has sent me pictures and it’s huge. But they need some extra hands with everything now you know, any help they can get is good. There’s other teenagers there, some of whom are as clueless as yourself, and you’ll be paid for doing chores and stuff...I’d think about it if I were you.” she did make some compelling arguments, but none strong enough to convince Josh to send him off to a filthy farm in the middle of nowhere. There probably wasn’t even wi-fi. Josh wasn’t sure he had ever seen a horse in real life. Oh man, they probably wore cowboy hats and nothing but plaid and those teenagers were probably so conservative they’d never stop staring at him. Why’s your hair pink? Isn’t make-up for girls? Homosexuality is sinnnn...  
“Over my dead body.” Josh answered simply and his parents sighed as he stormed back up the stairs to his room. 

“Pick up, pick up, pick up.” Josh murmured as he sat on his bed, not really knowing what to do with himself. Finally, the signals ended.  
“What?” he heard Brendon’s voice on the other line. “Josh, I’m in the middle of something here…” Josh tried to ignore Ryan’s whining in the background.  
“We need to talk.” he said seriously.  
“Oh, um...okay, hold on.” once again Josh could hear Ryan complain somewhere off the line and a rustle and Brendon stood up, probably, and then a door shut. “What’s going on, are you okay?”  
“No I’m not o-fucking-kay. My parents- argh, it makes me mad just to think about it! My parents want to send me away to some horse farm or some shit for the summer.” Josh growled.  
“What? What the fuck is that supposed to mean? What farm? Also I can tell you’re upset because you’re swearing, like are you serious?” Brendon rambled.  
“I know! I know right? It’s my mom’s old classmate’s ranch or whatever, it’s in Arizona. In Arizona. They went on about me not socializing and being on my phone all the time and what-fucking-ever!” Josh groaned.  
“But they can’t just send you off like some dog? When are you leaving?” Brendon sounded worried, which made Josh feel a bit special.  
“No, they’re not forcing me. Even if they were, I’m not gonna leave! But isn’t that suggestion still crazy, that they’d even ask?” Josh moaned, landing on his back in his soft mattress.  
“Oh, I thought they were.” Brendon now sounded a lot more calm, and Josh shot up straight into a sitting position again. “I mean, then you don’t have to go.”  
“But Brendon, isn’t that still crazy?” Josh tried, now just trying to get a reaction. Brendon couldn’t actually be calm with this? Brendon isn’t calm about anything.  
“Well, is it? You, and me and every kid in our generation, do spend a lot of time on our phones. Look, I’m not saying I want you to leave, like I will stab you before I let you leave me here, but it isn’t a crisis, Josh.” Brendon sighed and Josh was quiet for a moment, pressing his lips together to keep himself from saying something dumb.  
“No, I guess you’re right. Sorry to bother you about it, then.” Josh didn’t even care about being salty.  
“Hey, don’t be salty with me.” Man, Brendon knew him so well. “I have to get back to something, but I’ll see you tomorrow.” he finished and Josh didn’t hesitate before saying something stupid this time.  
“Okay, have fun fucking Ryan.” and then he hung up. 

Josh, you’re not actually considering it now, are you? He thought to himself. It was very like himself to do what he was told not to, even when it was himself who argued, apparently.  
“Okay, so what do I know…?” he asked himself quietly, rubbing his eyes with his hands. “This ranch, if mom wasn’t lying to make me consider it, is in pretty good shape. Brendon’s gonna spend the whole summer with Ryan and now he’s probably mad at me as well. Whether we have a fight or not when we meet I’ll feel terrible the whole summer about it, but it’s a farm in Arizona...” 

This monologue in form of a pros and cons list went for a long while, Josh getting more and more worried for each minute that passed. He got himself more and more convinced that spending the summer at a farm in Arizona with people he had either never met, or not met in years, was better than staying at home with nobody because Brendon hated him now and had replaced him with Ryan Ross and it was his own fault. He kept changing his mind back and forth until he had to go to bed. He thought about it while taking his makeup off, showering, brushing his teeth and taking his clothes off. When he laid his head on his pillow, one among the thousands, he was wide awake. The light from his phone screen was blinding when he unlocked it. No new messages from Brendon. Should he text him? He didn’t care about seeming desperate, he hadn’t meant to say anything mean. But he regret it before even doing it, locked his phone and tried to sleep.


	2. "The Decision."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Josh has an argument with his mom about Arizona, and he is persuaded by himself rather than any logical reason.

The next morning Josh was already awake when his alarm went off, which was different for him. Lazily he shut it off and then lied on his stomach, staring at his phone as he flipped back and forth between pages. After a while he realized what he was doing and locked it again. Did he really spend that much time on his phone? Was all he cared about the lives of people who didn’t know him? There was a quiet knock on the door.  
“Josh, you up?” his mother asked softly and Josh roller around, covering himself instead of lying half naked with his ass in the air…  
“Yes.” he grumbled, pulling his cover up to his nose. His mother entered the room.  
“Have you...have you thought about my suggestion?” she asked as she pulled away his curtains. Josh groaned into his pillow then sat up as his mother sat down on the foot of his bed.  
“Yeah. I’m sorry about storming off.” Josh muttered and his mother sighed.  
“Maybe they could teach you some manners as well.” she joked and Josh smiled.  
“As if. I’m too dumb to learn anything like that.” he shook his head and pointed his nose to the ceiling.  
“Oh, don’t say that.” she snorted, slapping him lightly on the arm. “Was Brendon as opposed to the idea?”  
Josh grumbled something under his breath, something of which he wasn’t sure what it was. “I dunno, I kind of hung up on him yesterday. I’ll talk to him about it today.”  
“Oh. Well I’m sure you’ll solve it. Anyway, as you know I already talked to Leann and they’re ready for you to come visit. Two of the girls who were supposed to work there decided not to...so please consider it, they need all the help they can get while the new establishment is working on everything. I really think it could be good for you.” she spoke softly and Josh listened without rolling his eyes or interrupting.  
“Okay.” he finished and she smiled.  
“Okay. See you after school.” his mother said and stood up, walked out and was soon out the front door. Josh landed back in his bed and sighed. 

Josh ate his toast on the kitchen counter today, not bothering to run off. Ashley didn’t bother to say anything. Josh was not in the mood to hang out with his siblings, but they just whined if he told them off. Before he used to drive them to school himself, but then he and Brendon decided to go together so it didn’t work out. Ashley would be getting her own driver’s license pretty soon too, so then she could do it.  
“I heard you and mom talk about sending you off to the Weekes family for the summer.” Ashley started, leaning back against the counter while eating her cereal.  
“Don’t eavesdrop, it’s rude.” Josh answered, grumpily taking a bite of his toast.  
“Anyway, are you gonna? I totally would. My friend has a cousin with horses and it’s actually pretty fun.” Ashley said. 

Ashley was fifteen, and she was one of Josh’s best friends as well. She was clever and very kind, not at all as narcissistic as himself. Jordan however could be a bother. He was eleven and really a typical little brother. Loud and copied people as an argument. Then there was Abigail who was eight, and she was a bit different from Ashley. Ashley had been a tomboy, hanging out with Josh all the time. Ironic though, as Josh turned out to be so non-boyish. Abby liked pink and cats. Ashley could get pretty mad when she played too rough with Snowflake, Ash’s ragdoll. 

“I don’t know, Ash. I’m trying to tell myself it can’t be horrible, and I want money,” Ashley laughed at this. “but a farm. In Arizona. I’ve never seen a real horse in my life.” he answered, taking a sip of his coffee.  
“Yeah, I get it. But I mean, you could always just go and check it out.” she suggested.  
“But my reputation’s gonna be ruined. Wow, pretty city-boy Josh went to a farm in Arizona? Out of his mind, he is. Probably has ebola now.” Josh joked and Ashley snorted again.  
“They don’t have ebola in Arizona.” she laughed. “And come on, your reputation? You don’t see anyone except for Brendon during the summer, except for when you go to parties, no one’s gonna notice you’re even gone.” she shook her head.  
“That’s real’ uplifting. And I’m probably not even gonna see Brendon. He’s busy with Ryan.” Josh sighed.  
“I thought they broke up?” Ashley asked. Ashley, being a close friend to Josh and also outside his whole school-situations, was a good let-out for rants like these.  
“They did. Three times. But here we are again, stronger than ever.” Josh took another grumpy sip. Ashley sighed.  
“Well you know, maybe he’ll realize how much he misses you if you go to Arizona.”  
“Maybe. Or maybe he’ll disown me as a friend for being out of my damn mind.” 

Suddenly Jordan came barging into the kitchen on his stupid hoverboard, twisting around and making noises.  
“Jordan! Mom said you shouldn’t go on that in the house, you’re making tracks!” Ashley scolded.  
“Come catch me then!” he teased back and went around the table and then out the kitchen again.  
“Argh, I hate that thing!” Josh’s sister groaned, crossing her arms over her chest.  
“Maybe he’ll grow out of it.” Usually Josh would be as annoyed, but he had other things on his mind. 

Brendon would have other things to do, they would have maybe half as much time together, time that was already little. He would literally only lie in his bed this summer. He was a junior now, he’d be a senior next year. Might as well do something, right? 

Soon Josh was left alone in the house as usual, and he was too late to pick any fancy clothes, but he couldn’t go to school with barely any make-up again, so he did a casual contour and filled in his eyebrows, a smokey eye and his favourite lipstick, Cyber by Mac, hoping it would cheer him up a bit. It did, a little bit. He even changed his labret to another ring, a gold one. Usually he’d take a dark one, wearing dark lipstick, but Cyber stayed in place really well. His clothes were mostly all black as well, just because. 

After that he picked up his phone to text Brendon. It didn’t matter if he was annoyed, Josh needed to know if he was picking him up today. He sent off the text and then went downstairs to put on shoes and take his bag. If he wasn’t being driven, he’d have to walk, and if that was the case he had to hurry now. Lo and behold, he didn’t get any response. With a sigh Josh walked out the door and was met instantly by the familiar BMW driving up and the window rolled down.  
“You’re in a hurry! But actually on time, well done!” Brendon grinned. Josh felt relieved.  
“Yeah, I actually am!” he responded, walking around to hop into the passenger seat. 

They were quiet for the most of the trip, some mornings they just didn’t have anything to talk about. But Josh was itching to say something.  
“Hey, Bren.”  
“Yeah?” Brendon drummed with his fingers on the wheel before taking a turn.  
“I’m sorry for hanging up on you.” Josh said quietly. He had already apologized twice today, that’s more than he had done in his entire life!  
“Ah no worries. Sorry being a bit of a dick. Anyway, how are you doing on that fucking farm thing?” Brendon asked and Josh couldn’t help but laugh at the way he phrased it.  
“I dunno.”  
“Wait, you’re not actually considering it?” Brendon asked, sounding actually shocked, no surprise there.  
“I dunno…” Josh repeated. “There might be cute boys there.” he tried and Brendon rolled his eyes.  
“You have a point, except it’s Arizona so it’s gonna be-”  
“Conservative boys who have never seen two guys stand closer together than five feet?” Josh suggested and Brendon nodded dramatically.  
“And never seen hair dye.”  
“Or piercings.”  
“Or make-up, at least not on a dude.”  
“Yeah. But I’ll get paid.” Josh tried.  
“You’re saying that as if you’ll do it.” Brendon looked at him. “Remember what I said. I will stab you if you leave me.” Josh laughed.  
“You could come visit.” Josh tried again and Brendon narrowed his eyes. “And hang out with the cute boys.” Josh couldn’t help but smile and Brendon burst out laughing, almost driving off the road.  
“Sure. Do what you want, but you’ll have a nice stab wound to show for!” 

They arrived to school in time once more, and once again Ryan greeted Brendon with his usual full-on kiss in the middle of the hallway. Josh didn’t mind so much today though, he was still focused on other things. He checked the time, two minutes to go. No worries, they were all in the same class today so they could head off in the same direction. Suddenly Ryan took initiative to speak to Josh first however.  
“Hey, I heard you got offered to go to Arizona. That’s sort of weird.” he said, his voice as soft and mellow as ever.  
“Uh, yeah. I’m on the fence about it, so to say.” Josh joked, not wanting to admit he was actually considering doing it to Ryan Ross.  
“Right. Well, Arizona’s pretty cool. I’ve never been, but the red deserts are pretty beautiful.” he said, looking at Brendon as he said the last part. Josh tried his best not to roll his eyes.

They went through their classes, all of them together today. They had art, in which Josh desperately tried to work on the project they were set to do with Brendon, who were both pretty terrible at art, while Ryan was doing a painting of his own, because he was already done with his part. He had a big canvas and looked pretty professional. Then english, Ryan exceeded once more with his almost pretentiously large vocabulary. Yeah, Ryan was good at a lot of stuff. Josh was good at makeup and overreacting. 

They finished the day with history, which was a generally dull subject. All these people were dead, daily morals were more important. Either way, it seemed Brendon seemed oblivious to Ryan looking to him when they were about to go home. He was talking hurriedly to Josh about the french revolution, almost smacking a girl in the face as she walked by with his wild gestures, making Josh laugh, while Ryan was waiting behind him to finish. Josh was still packing while the other two were done, and Josh felt that sneaky little pride of being prioritized. When he was done however, Brendon seemed to be faced the dilemma of who to drive home when they were walking toward his car. Josh was going to be cool and pretend he didn’t care.  
“Sorry babe, this might be the last day I see him this summer. Except for tomorrow.” Brendon decided, giving Ryan a kiss.  
“Right, okay. Well, see you tomorrow.” Ryan responded and Josh hated himself for feeling to good.  
“Nah, I’ll text you later.” Brendon said, and Ryan nodded before walking off in another direction. Josh tried so hard not to say anything. 

As Brendon drove up on Josh’s family’s driveway, Josh was surprised to see him jump out of the car as well.  
“Feel like hanging out?” he asked, but was already heading for the door.  
“Of course.” Josh responded casually and followed him. Brendon sort of had a second home at Josh’s, and it was the same reversed. That’s what being best friends was like. First thing that happened when they went inside was Snowflake the cat racing down the stairs and straight into the kitchen. A few moments later came Abby, thundering after the poor feline.  
“Abby! Stop harassing my child!” yelled Ashley from upstairs and was soon after her. “Hey Bren, how’s it going?” she asked, not even turning to see him, but just following her little sister into the kitchen.  
“I’m good, thanks.” Brendon responded. “Yourself?”  
“Well, I know I have a kleptomaniac for a sister.” Ashley said, walking back into the hallway with her cat safe in her arms and Abby whining by her side.  
“I’m not a- a kleppo-mane-iactic-er…” Abby whined and Josh and Brendon chuckled. 

Brendon went up to Josh’s room while Josh made popcorn. It didn’t matter that it was just afternoon and that they weren’t planning to see a movie, popcorn was just a thing they liked to make when hanging out. They always had it had home and it was good to eat while talking. Got stuck in your teeth, though…

Josh walked in to see Brendon as usual sprawled across his large bed, smiling widely as he dug himself down in the soft covers.  
“This is what heaven must be like.” he claimed and Josh laughed.  
“You say that every time. Here, catch.” he said and Brendon sat up. Josh caught a popcorn and Brendon just about caught it with his mouth, letting out a victory whoop! after. 

They hung out for a couple of hours, mostly just lying on Josh’s bed and showing each other posts on each others’ Tumblr dashes and laughing about them. Josh’s mother came home right as Brendon was leaving, the two crashing in the doorway. They laughed and apologized while Josh just felt immensely embarrassed. His mother’s hands were full of bags and she also had her purse around her shoulder. Josh was already a few steps up the stairs when she called for him.  
“Hey, a little help, please?” she asked with offense and Josh turned around with a sigh.  
“‘Kay.” he muttered and walked down again, taking two of her bags.  
“Don’t you ‘kay me, young man.” she scolded and Josh rolled his eyes, deciding not to respond. 

He was turning back and forth slowly between the bag on the table and the fridge, waiting for his mom to ask about Arizona. He was desperately trying to think of answer, which was useless, considering he didn’t have one whatsoever. Would he have to unpack groceries in Arizona? That’s the tiebreaker, really.  
“Thought anything? ‘Bout AZ?” she asked at last. Josh felt a cringe at her using shortened words, but didn’t bother complaining.  
“Oh, yeah. I don’t think I’m gonna go.” he said. 

This was a last minute decision he had thought of when hanging out with Brendon. Why would he not want to lay in bed all day and hang out with people he knew when he wanted? Sleep as much as he liked, eat whatever he liked, not smell like horse-shit all day and all night. Sure it was a good establishment, but did they have wi-fi? Electricity? Water? 

“Oh. Well…” his mother suddenly looked surprised.  
“What?” Josh instantly asked.  
“Well I was sure you would. Josh, why not?” she suddenly sounded a bit more stern. Josh sighed, putting a box of cereal in it’s place.  
“Because I don’t want to.” he answered simply.  
“Josh, come on. You know it would be good for you, you’re just too stubborn to see it. You’ll get some new friends-” she argued, also continuing to unpack.  
“I have a friend.” Josh answered, even though he didn’t mean to answer just one, he should have said more. Although he only had one.  
“You’ll learn a lot. Come on, I know you’re just being lazy.” she said and Josh stopped in his movements to gape at her. “You know I’m right.”  
“Excuse me?” he still snapped back, closing the cupboard. “I’m lazy, am I?”  
“God, are we doing this?” his mother begged, lifting up a pack of frozen vegetables.  
“Yes, we are.” Josh said and crossed his arms. How dared she call him lazy? That’s a full-on insult!  
“Yes, you’re lazy. Ashley’s been-”  
“Oh, haha! Don’t bring my sister into this like she’s some perfect princess.” Josh laughed, even though he didn’t find this amusing.  
“You don’t help out around the house, you’d never imagine yourself studying or looking for a job, all you do is stare on your screens and shut yourself in on your room. I’m worried about you, Josh.” his mother thundered, making movements and everything. 

Josh wasn’t used to being yelled at, he wasn’t used to being in arguments at all and definitely not with his mom. So he could only be quiet and try not to tear up. He took a step back and clenched his fists and bit his lip to not say something really stupid or start crying.  
“I’m fine.” he answered, raising his eyebrows, but his voice broke. His mother sighed.  
“We always let you do whatever you want and support you-” once again Josh had to interrupt.  
“Support me? As in what, now? Being gay, wearing makeup and girly clothes? Is that a struggle?” he challenged.  
“You know that’s not what I mean.” 

Josh had always known he was a bit different, ever since he was in kindergarten when he got nervous around Brendon in a different way than with the other kids, for example. They were completely platonic now, but he and Brendon had always been the same and that made it easy for Josh to express himself and find out who he was. So his parents had never got a shock like Brendon’s had, they had just sort of seen him grow into it. Still, he could see how they hurried out of public spaces when people gave weird looks and never wanted to talk to him about these things. He couldn’t even discuss mascara with his mom sometimes. So he knew. 

“Are you trying to convert me? Conversion therapy by sending me to some conservative farm-” Josh almost yelled, wanting to storm off.  
“Josh, stop it. It’s because I love you.” she sighed, but Josh was unmoved.  
“Man, maybe they’re less judgemental at that fucking farm. You know what, nevermind! If it makes you happy, I’m going. I don’t need to be around here anyway, putting up with this bullshit.” he decided, once more in a second before walking off.  
“Josh-” his mother asked but he didn’t respond, soon shut in on his room as usual, pacing angrily back and forth, trying hard not to cry. He wasn't going to, but he needed distraction. So he pulled out a suitcase from far in in his closet, placing it on his bed. He might as well start packing, if his mom wanted him out of the house so bad. 

After walking back and forth to pack clothes, desperately trying to balance good looks with practical comfort for a farm. His wide jeans but also some cheap skinny jeans, as well as yoga pants and an old pair of shorts that he hadn’t sore in a while. He barely owned any tank-tops or normal T-shirts, and Arizona was hot. He had a few black graphic T's, and that would have to do. Otherwise he only he had sweaters, blouses and button-downs. A few cardigans and one gray hoodie, which also came along. He wasn’t going to do that much anyway, and he still needed to keep his dignity, so he brought most of his makeup stuff and hair products. Did they have hair-dye in Arizona? Would these people know what it was? Maybe he should just let it grow out, save himself the trouble. 

Suddenly there was a knock on the door and Josh just about realized he had been crying at last.  
“Josh?” it was Ashley. Josh sniffed, lightly touching his fingers under his eyes to not smudge anything.  
“Not now, Ash.” he said, but she had already opened and shut the door. “Rude.” he said, without turning around.  
“So you’re going to Arizona?” she asked.  
“Yeah, mom doesn’t seem to want me here anyway. That’s pretty clear to see, I think.” Josh sighed, picking at the button on one of the shirts in the bag.  
“That’s not true.” Ashley said, joining him at his side. “She’s just...jittery as always.”  
“She’s embarrassed about me.” Josh sighed and sat down on his bed. Ashley hesitated before sitting down next to him. “Of course. I always ignored it, because it was just day-to-day, but I think she’s ashamed. Wearing makeup and dressing like I do. It bothers her, and dad too, probably.”  
Ashley didn’t respond at first, Josh took it as she knew what he was talking about and couldn’t argue. He didn’t want her to, because they both knew he was right.  
“If that’s the case, you shouldn’t let it bother you. You...remember what Brendon said that time when those big kids were hollering on those girls kissing and stuff in eighth grade.” Ashley tried and Josh remembered very well.  
“Fuck them. No one can tell you who to love. Or fuck.” he grinned.  
“Yeah.” Ashley said lightly. “He said the same to his parents, didn’t he?”  
“Yeah, he did.” Josh nodded. “But you know I couldn’t do that…”  
“No, but you get the idea.” Ashley said.  
Josh sighed, scratching his head and looking at his suitcase. “So what do you want me to do?”  
“Whatever you want, like you always do. Rebel and stay, or leave and leave them thinking.” Ashley said with a smirk and a playful shrug. Josh grinned at her.  
“Man, best sister.” he muttered and she giggled.  
“I know.” Ashley smiled. 

Josh pretended he didn’t exist during the dinner at evening, much like everyone else seemed to do. Except for Ashley, that is. But for the most part it was their mom talking to their dad or their other siblings. Jordan was being loud and obnoxious as usual, Abigail was talking about something from school. Josh figured he should tell them about his decision, but there weren’t any free spaces. Everyone seemed to be talking in each other’s mouths and having good conversations without him, so why should he interrupt? But he waited for a moment of quiet, but his family seemed determined to keep him silent. That was of course until he took the matter into own hands.  
“I’m going to Arizona.” he spoke up and everyone turned to him. Ashley looked surprised for a second before bursting into a giggling fit while his parents looked at each other.  
“Oh man, I wanna go to Arizona! Why can’t I? Can I, mom?” Jordan burst out.  
“Are you gonna see ponies?” Abby asked curiously and Josh smiled politely at her with a nod, making her smile.  
“So you've decided?” their dad asked, nodding to him to confirm and Josh did the same, more nervously.  
“Yep. I can leave anytime. Packed my things…” he said, glancing at Ashley, who was still grinning like an idiot.  
“Oh, well...the summer shift starts on Monday, so I guess we’ll have to drive you out on Sunday.” his mother said, still looking confused and shared a look with her husband.  
“Roadtrip!” Jordan called.  
“As if.” Josh rolled his eyes and Jordan stuck his tongue out. 

It was Thursday today, and tomorrow school would end. And on this Sunday, Josh was headed toward Arizona.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There we go! That was chapter two! I have a few chapters done already so I'll be posting those regularly, and then I'll post when I finish writing, like I do with everything else ahah...hope you liked it! Have a nice week, everyone!


	3. "Arrival."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The last day before Arizona. Ten weeks ahead.

Today was the day. Josh woke up slowly, feeling warm breaths on his neck. Brendon had come over yesterday and stayed over, talking back forth for hours about Arizona, trying desperately to talk him out of it at the same time as excitedly planning visits and helping him pack the last things. Josh hadn’t slept a lot, and not very well, but he felt wide awake. He opened his phone to check the time. 10:12 AM, June 5. If he stayed in Arizona the entire summer he’d come back August 7th, that was a Sunday.  
“Brendon.” he said without looking down at his friend, who didn’t react. Josh sighed and decided not to bother him. Brendon was a heavy sleeper, he would wake up when he was supposed to. 

Josh got up and didn’t bother to put on his morning robe, as he had slept in a t-shirt. Instead he pulled on pyjama pants, remembering that he hadn’t packed them. He left his room and walked downstairs, met by his family in the kitchen. Ashley was standing by the stove, making what Josh had already smelled when he exited his room; waffles. Jordan was bickering with Abby by the table about some TV show it seemed, while their mother was pouring milk and smiling fondly at them, knowing it was all good fun. Josh stopped for a second to watch them, since they hadn’t seen him yet. He wondered what would change when they did. He was going away for the summer, and his mom and him had had a short but pretty serious argument. However Josh suddenly received a little pat on his shoulder and jumped about a mile into the air when his father walked past him with a warm smile.  
“Excited to go to ‘zona today?” he asked and the rest of his family turned to them.  
“Don’t say ‘zona…” Josh muttered, but his father just laughed and walked into the kitchen.  
“Oh, good morning, Josh! Look, I’m making waffles!” Ashley bragged, making a little dance move as she showed off her pile of waffles on a plate.  
“I can see that.” Josh grinned back.  
“How long’s the drive, dad?” Jordan asked, interrupting his discussion with Abigail.  
“About seven hours, I’d say. If we’re lucky with traffic.” their dad answered, sitting down next to his youngest children.  
“And when are we leaving?” Josh asked.  
“I was thinking noon. Then we’ll be there at about seven or eight, you’ll get settled in and then get things started tomorrow.” his dad answered and Josh nodded, kissing his teeth in thought. That was good, he didn’t want to meet every single person right off the bat. 

His mother had so far not talked to Josh, which wasn’t all too surprising. They hadn’t spoken a lot whatsoever. Obviously they were both being immature by doing this, but Josh didn’t think he was the one who had to apologize or anything. All of a sudden he heard heavy steps come down the stairs and soon Brendon was in sight, wrapped in Josh’s morning robe and walking with a slouched posture. His eyes were half-closed and his hair was an absolute mess, so Josh couldn’t help but grin. Lazily he leaned his forehead to Josh’s shoulder and let out a low grumble.  
“Well, good morning to you to. Care for waffles?” Josh asked.  
“Why else did you think I’d come down?” Brendon asked, standing up straight again and without hesitation taking a place at the table. This wasn’t anything new to the Dun family, Brendon stayed over all the time.  
“Morning, Bren. Sleep well?” Ash asked from her place by the waffle iron.  
“Morning, Ash. Pretty good, very tired…” he answered and Ashley laughed.  
“Man, these teenagers, right Laura?” Josh’s dad asked, looking at his wife. She looked like she snapped out of something.  
“Oh, yes. Hello, Brendon, by the way.” she smirked, remarking how he could just show up like he did. Josh sighed very quietly and went to sit down next to his best friend. 

“Ta-da!” Ashley sang, putting a plate with a reasonable, bordering excessive, amount of waffles on the table.  
“Bless you, Ashley Dun.” Brendon smiled and flung over two waffles to his plate instantly, while the chef herself made a dramatic oh, stop it, you gesture.  
“Thank you, sweetie.” their mother smiled at her daughter.  
“A good final meal.” Josh joked and Ashley and Brendon snorted. The others didn’t seem as amused. 

They ate breakfast for a while. Josh tried his best to stay around instead of go and shut himself in on his room the moment he was done, and not just because his parents hated when he did that, but because he wanted to. In a little over an hour he would be leaving for about two months, and he would miss them. Probably. At least Ashley and Brendon, who laugh at his jokes. It was actually his father who made the call;  
“Now we’ve sat around enough, it’s an hour until we leave. Josh and Brendon, why don’t you run off to the store and buy some snacks for the road? We’ll stop and eat dinner, but you know.” he suggested and Josh nodded, taking Brendon by the arm to get him to stand up despite him being so tired. 

They went up to his room to get dressed. Brendon put on the same clothes as yesterday, because he couldn’t borrow any of Josh’s as most of it was in his suitcase. Josh did the same, for the same reason. He also made sure to pack down his pyjama pants now. Then they hurried out and down the street to get this done as fast as possible.  
“Dude, it’s gonna be burning hot in Arizona. You don’t own any tank-tops.” Brendon said, walking backwards so he could face Josh while talking.  
“First off, don’t call me dude. Second, you are correct. I’m gonna drown in my sweat.” Josh sighed.  
“Gross, dude. You’re gonna get really tan, too.” Brendon then said, more excitedly.  
“Probably. That’s something to look forward to, I guess.” Josh joked. “Oh man, what if I get to borrow tanks and stuff? Or overalls.” Josh said dramatically with a shudder while Brendon laughed.  
“Nah, I think you’d look good in overalls, if you wore just overalls.” he answered with a smug smile.  
“Stop being so fuckig gay…” Josh sighed, trying not to smile but failing.  
“Comes from the right person, you think cute boys is a valid argument to go to Arizona. Not even guaranteed cute boys, just the concept of there being cute boys.” Brendon argued back, making Josh laugh. 

After rambling around in the store for a while, not doing what they were supposed to, Josh got some maltesers. They were his favourite snack as of lately, so he decided to get two bags. Brendon didn’t get anything, despite Josh’s multiple times of asking him too because he knew that if he didn’t he would just steal from Josh. They walked out and Brendon grabbed ahold of Josh’s wrist, pulling him in another direction. Josh didn’t argue, he was eating maltesers. They went to a bench by the road a bit down and Brendon sat down, flipping up his sunglasses which had been in his chest pocket.  
“What’s up?” Josh asked, throwing a piece of candy into his mouth casually. It was obvious Brendon wanted to say something, but Josh didn’t bother to much about what. There was always something. Josh sat down.  
“Just wanted to spend a few moments with my best friend in his last time on earth.” Brendon shrugged.  
“Oh, right. Yeah, okay.” Josh snorted sarcastically. “I won’t die.”  
“You’ve never met a horse, you could be allergic.” Brendon argued.  
“I think that’s a genetic thing.”  
“Do you know for sure if your parents have met a horse? Do you know?” Brendon said, but sighed when Josh didn’t answer. “When’d you decide to go, anyway? And why? You never told me that.”  
Josh thought for a second. At first it was just in spite, because his mother called him lazy, but then he just got used to the thought. He was obviously going insane.  
“Well...I sort of got in a fight with my mom about some stuff.” he said. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Brendon, not at all. If Josh killed a person he could count on Brendon to show up with a shovel. But Brendon also got fired up easily, much like himself. Still, it was unlikely Brendon wouldn’t make him say anyway.  
“About what? Or well Arizona, but like what happened? What’ she say?” Brendon asked, trying to steal a malteser from Josh, who slapped his hand away.  
“Stuff.” Josh shrugged, but to no avail.  
“I will hit you. Tell me.” Brendon was suddenly serious, sitting straight again.  
“That’s not very nice.” Josh grinned but Brendon lowered his eyebrows, making Josh give in. “Ah, she called me lazy and you know, the usual you don’t do anything in the house talk.” he said, and maybe that would be enough. He didn’t like lying to Brendon, though. Did this count as lying?  
“Oh. Well, is she really wrong?” Brendon questioned and Josh shot him a glare, but then realized he had a point. “Exactly. So why are you upset?”  
“I’m not.” Josh muttered. “I mean, we said some other stuff too. About...ah, nevermind. It’s nothing to what your parents said, anyway.” Josh thought out loud.  
“Doesn’t make it less valid. So what, ‘bout your sexuality and makeup skills?” he smirked, probably not knowing he was right.  
“I mean, yeah.” Josh sighed and instantly Brendon frowned, his eyes turning black.  
“What?” he said through gritted teeth.  
“No, don’t get heated, it was mostly me jumping to conclusions. Don’t worry about it.” Josh reassured, and Brendon did sit back down from standing up, but didn’t look much less calm.  
“I can’t believe it. I didn’t think your parents cared at all.” he groaned.  
“No, I don’t know. Of course they care, they care about their reputation and I’m sort of a spot on the perfect family photo, you know. But it’s not like they want to disown me.” Josh explained and Brendon bit the inside of his cheek in thought.  
“It’s still making me mad. I’ll kick her ass. Both of their asses.” Brendon grumbled and Josh laughed.  
“You can try. Anyway-” Josh didn’t finish but Brendon’s phone buzzed. Josh peeked over the screen as Brendon unlocked it. From Ryan. Sigh.  
“What’ he want?” Josh muttered and leaned his head against Brendon’s shoulder. He had right to be clingy when Brendon was getting so much attention.  
“Asking where I am. Hanging out w J. Should I ask him to join us?” Brendon asked, turning his face so his cheek met Josh’s forehead.  
“No.” Josh answered grimly.  
“Oh shut up.” Brendon said fondly. “You can meet us outside Target if u want. We’re heading home to J soon.” Brendon read out loud.  
“Don’t spell out you then write it with one letter.” Josh commented but Brendon just grunted. He got another text. Sure, two minutes. A little short? Could at least send a heart. 

They wait where they are, Josh still leaned against Brendon’s shoulder when he came into sight. When he was walking a bit away you could tell how tall Ryan was, he was surely a good six feet. Both Josh and Brendon were short, Josh was just 5’6”, Brendon was maybe an inch taller. He was wearing sunglasses as well, and Josh kept his eyes on them until Ryan flipped them up, revealing makeup that even took Josh by surprise with gold glitter that fit into a smokey eye. How? Josh needed to remember that.  
“Hello, babe.” Brendon grinned and Ryan flashed a small smirk before grabbing his boyfriend’s hand and pulling him up into a kiss. Josh stood up and sort of awkwardly nodded to Ryan when the two had broken apart, still casting glances at each other, reminding each other of things they had done last time they saw each other. Josh didn’t mind that, but it bothered him somehow.  
“Let’s head home, I’ll be leaving in an hour.” Josh said, taking a few steps onto the road, and Brendon whined.  
“Ugh, just you saying it makes me mad.” he grumbled, and Ryan laughed quietly at him. Josh tried so hard not to take it personally. He failed, but brushed it off.  
“Why are you going, anyway?” Ryan asked, and Josh was so tired of this question now that he sighed out loud. Ryan didn’t seem to notice, but Brendon did and gave him a soft push.  
“Parents persuaded me. Classic thing, they think I spend too much time on my phone and not socializing. It’s like...God damn Flicka 2 or something.” Josh answered and laughed at himself.  
“Like what?” Ryan asked, looking confused but not really interested.  
“Nevermind.” Josh answered, waving a hand to fling the subject away. There would probably have been a tension it weren’t for Brendon stepping in.  
“Well, it’s not like you hate the idea, do you?” he asked in a challenging tone, looking to embarrass his best friend, probably.  
“No.” Josh admitted with a shrug. “It might be fun.” The other two didn’t say anymore, but Brendon seemed pleased and Ryan nodded understandingly. He may be pretentious but at least he doesn't think I’m a snob, Josh thought. 

They got back inside and Ashley was having a heated discussion with Jordan about what seemed to be hoverboarding indoors. Their mother was talking on the phone and their dad was just walking down the stairs. To say the least, things were hectic. Ashley turned and nodded them over. Josh and Brendon went instantly after taking their shoes off, but Ryan seemed reluctant.  
“You have a nice house.” he said, and Josh felt that competitive evil rise in him.  
“Thanks. What’s up, Ash?” he then asked his sister, who rolled her eyes as Jordan stuck his tongue out.  
“He scared Snowflake half to death with that damn hoverboard! I don’t know where he is now.” Ashley groaned.  
“The damn cat got in the way.” Jordan responded.  
“Hey, hey.” Josh calmed them with a securing smile. “Snowflake lives here too, so how about you hoverboard only when you know he’s not around?” Josh suggested half-heartedly. Jordan grunted and then left. 

Josh’s mom looked over to them and was confused at the sight of Ryan, because as far as she knew, him and Brendon were broken up. Truth was, him and Brendon had broken up and gotten back together maybe three times since then.  
“Hello, Ryan. It’s been a while.” she said unsurely and he nodded.  
“Yeah, hello.” he started, looking awkward, before Brendon sighed and stood up on his toes whilst pulling his boyfriend’s face down by his shirt and kissed him for two seconds and then smiled at him for a long time. God damn it, Josh thought and looked over at Ashley, and they both laughed. Brendon was stubborn, and after he heard what Josh had said about his mother’s feelings of his sexuality and style, it was clear he wanted to make her uncomfortable. Brendon likes pushing people’s buttons. 

His mother hurried off without another word and Josh and Brendon grinned at each other. Ryan looked confused, and Ashley was still trying to stop laughing.  
“I see you guys are back together.” she then said and Brendon nodded.  
“Nice to see you too, Ashley.” Ryan responded and Josh could tell he was bothered, but Ashley laughed all the same. 

 

“Babe, wait for me outside.” Brendon called to Ryan as they were all putting their shoes on, Josh included. The hour had come, and very soon he’d be headed to Arizona.  
“Kay.” Ryan answered and walked out, probably relieved to finally leave Josh’s house. Before Josh had thought more of it, Brendon had swung his arms around his back and hugged him so tight he could barely breathe, and could only do the same back.  
“I’ll hold back on stabbing if you give me a goodbye kiss.” Brendon suggested and Josh laughed.  
“Is that a bestfriend thing to do?” he huffed.  
“Yes.” Brendon answered and pecked him on the lips, like he had done many times before. Good thing they sent away Ryan. “I’m gonna miss you.” he then said more seriously.  
“Don’t start crying on me now.” Josh warned, bringing Brendon in for a second hug and kissed his cheek in the movement. “Come visit.” he asked of him.  
“I will.” Brendon promised, and Josh felt at ease. It would just be ten weeks, it would be fine. The two walked out and separated as Brendon took hold of Ryan’s hand whilst waving with the other. Josh waved too, until his dad had sat in the car for at least a minute, and then joined him on the other side.  
“Ready to go, champ?” he asked, and Josh nodded.  
“I think I’m ready to go.” he answered, and sat back in his seat. Champ was such a straight thing to call your child, by the way. 

Josh didn’t want to be awkward and plug in his headphones instantly, but it would be even more awkward not to. Because what could he and his dad talk about when they were alone? They shared almost no interests, and if they did they had different opinions on it. So he went with some Lana Del Rey, he could probably skim through all her albums twice or three times in seven hours. It was a bit past noon, and it was sunny as always outside. The joy of California, of course. Was it equally sunny in Arizona? He couldn’t remember, it had been so long since they went there last. He imagined so, considering the heat and deserts. That was Arizona mostly, wasn’t it? To be fair, California was a lot of desert too. But he hadn’t seen more of it than from the window of the car when they drove around the state or visited someone outside of it. Arizona, for example.  
“So,” Josh heard his dad speak from somewhere outside his headphones and contemplated ignoring it. “I think there was gonna be three or four other kids. Just...just boys I think.” he said, and Josh had to stop himself from hitting himself in the face from embarrassment.  
“If you’re trying to bribe me, it’s too late. We’re already headed.” Josh responded, watching as they exited the city and got out onto a land of shrubs and sand.  
“Dallon’s gonna be there, of course. You remember him, right?” Bill asked and Josh almost laughed at how he changed the subject.  
“Yeah.” Josh answered, trying to sound uninterested. He and Dallon had never really spoken, he was a bit older and had therefore mostly just gotten Josh as a responsibility when he was little.  
“He’s grown pretty tall, I think. Unlike yourself.” his dad joked, and Josh laughed softly, not finding it particularly funny. He was short, what was there more to it? He didn’t mind. Didn’t like being called out on it, though. 

During the rest of the drive, Bill continued desperately to engage in conversation, while Josh simply flicked it away as soon as possible, not wanting to miss any of the music he was listening to. What did people listen to in Arizona? Country? Oh God, please don’t let it be country. Josh plugged his other earbud back in after politely keeping it out to pretend he was listening to what his dad was saying now and then, and turned up the volume. He tried to be stubborn, to act like he didn’t care about anything and probably that he didn’t want to go to Arizona, but the change in scenery outside made him excited. They stopped to eat a quick and rather unhealthy dinner right outside Phoenix, and after that Josh realized that all the nature he saw would be relevant the next ten weeks. That was a weird thought. Josh had never really liked the nature when he was here before, and he definitely hadn’t remembered that he didn’t when he started considering going on this trip. What types of bugs were there? Was there a risk he would actually get ebola? His parents had said that the ranch was modern and clean and all that stuff, but was it modern and clean generally, or was it modern and clean for a ranch? How high should his expectations be? Were the floors of creaky, sparse wooden planks or parquet? There were so many questions, all that made him unsure and start to consider jumping out the window, but somehow he managed to stay stubborn and return to his bitter thoughts of his argument with his mom the last few days. She was worse than this could be, because he couldn’t ask for these people to accept him. The least his mom could do was discuss makeup with him without being awkward about it. She wasn’t homophobic, he didn’t think so, but she would probably prefer him to be a fuckboy jock over who he already was. Sorry mom, you’ve got to settle for you have. Except you don’t, because you’re sending me off for converting on a farm. Josh smirked at his own thoughts. He was going to come back more gay and more glittery, and with a hot tan as well. 

The sun had just set thirty minutes earlier when Josh opened his eyes upon the car slowing down, the sound of gravel under the wheels, then stopped and turned off. He felt his stomach flutter with butterflies in nervousness, and his heart started beating faster. He barely dared to look out the front window at the house. His dad seemed to understand, looking at his son with thought.  
“You nervous?” he asked and Josh shrugged, but failed to look confident.  
“Sort of.” he said.  
“It’ll be totally okay. This will be more fun than you think, I believe. The summer will be over in no time.” he reassured, and surprisingly, Josh was thankful for his words. It was comforting to know his dad understood that what he was feeling, more or less. It made him almost want to say something nice before being left alone.  
“Hey, dad.” he said quietly, not really sure where he was going with it.  
“Yeah, son?” Bill answered, oblivious, maybe.  
“Are you...embarrassed about me?” Josh asked, already feeling his throat get thicker. He hated talking about it, but he couldn’t wander around the whole summer without closure from his dad’s side.  
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Bill asked, though he probably knew. Which would mean Josh’s assumption was correct.  
“Being gay. Wearing makeup. Not giving a shit about sports. Just-... being this way. That I am.” Josh sighed, looking down at his hands.  
“Well,” his father started, but Josh wanted to finish before he teared up.  
“Because it seemed...no, I think mom is. You know, you hate when people stare at me and always make up excuses for me, and you never want to talk to me or anyone else about it, or whatever.” he tried to sound casual, like he just wanting answers, not validation.  
“Joshua, I don’t think the problem is that we’re embarrassed, we just...don’t understand you as well as you do.” he tried, and he was apparently right.  
“Like I’m not really what you signed up for?” Josh questioned, knowing he was being trouble.  
“You’re bending my words. Listen, we love you.” Josh never liked being told he was loved. Made him weirdly uncomfortable. “We do, and we will whatever you choose to do. Okay?” Bill said, and Josh was surprised. It sounded as if he was finished. He...never really answered his question, did he? Josh felt his heart drop, as if he was suddenly dead to the world. His dad just couldn’t muster up to tell him he was proud of him, not even that he wasn’t embarrassed of him. Was that really too much to ask?  
“Okay.” Josh answered, nodding understandingly. He understood, but probably not in the way his dad wanted him to. 

They got out of the car and Josh breathed in the different air. It was full of another type of warmth than the one from the city. It felt...more free, dumb as that sounded, because all air was free. It was like the night brought actual sleep to people out here, and when it went down, people stopped making a fuss. In the city, the kids would stubbornly stay out, never letting anything rest. Here, the night was quiet. Except for the what sounded like thousands of crickets singing in the grass. Grass? Had there always been grass here? Wasn’t Arizona mostly red deserts...and tumbleweeds? Josh looked up toward the house, and oh. Okay, it wasn’t terrible. He got his hopes up. The walls were mixes between white bricks and red wood, and there was a large front porch with a staircase leading up to the door. Because the land was rather flat, there being a fence around looked uncalculated, but there was a white picket fence around the main house. By the gate was a sign, saying Crescent Valley Ranch. Far to the left of that building was a large wooden house that actually looked less like a house and more like a stable. Which it probably was then. Right, horses. Josh could smell them, probably. He wasn’t sure if that was what he was smelling, but it probably was. It smelled sweet and sort of dry, and he wasn’t sure what it was. Not Chanel No. 5, that was damn sure. 

The windows were light, and Josh picked up his phone, though his battery was running low. 8PM on the dot. With a shaky sigh he followed his dad up to the front door, feeling the gravel and soft earth under his shoes. These shoes were his least expensive and most comfortable, but he didn’t want to ruin them still. Of course he’d try not to ruin anything, or pretty much do anything, because he was coming home from this place in one piece and with as much dignity he could scrape together by persuading himself this wasn’t entirely crazy.  
“Want to do the honors?” Bill asked, nodding to the door, and Josh rolled his eyes at how his dad was acting like this was a big deal. He rang the bell and stepped back so he wouldn’t be hit in the face with the door. He somewhat felt like running away and hiding behind that creepy, dead tree by the gate to the fence. A dog started barking indoors, and it sounded big. Josh felt unsure. He didn’t really like dogs that much. Suddenly the door opened and a middle-aged woman stood with a bright smile in front of him. Josh felt like a deer in the headlights. Now, now it was too late to run away. 

“Hello, hello! Come on in, please.” she said kindly, and Josh smiled unsurely and did as told, feeling awkward as hell.  
“Hello, Leann, it’s been so long.” Bill said and stepped on in. They were being so loud, Josh thought. The night was supposed to be quiet in Arizona.  
“Bill! It has been, truly.” the two hugged quickly while Josh stood completely still, not wanting to touch anything. Out of awkwardness of fear, he wasn’t sure. The house did look nice though. Simple, but not abandoned-barn-on-the-prairie simple.  
“Josh, it is so nice to see you.” Leann had turned to Josh and he looked up, nodding for some reason, feeling his face go white. “Oh, you look nervous. Don’t worry kid, I don’t bite.” she said genuinely, and Josh did feel a bit more at peace.  
“Yeah, I’m a little tired and all. But it’s nice to...nice to be here.” he tried to make sense.  
“Yes, I hope you’re going to enjoy yourself.” she said warmly, and Josh nodded again, then jumped a mile into the air as another voice came from behind.  
“And work hard, of course.” it was a male, dad-like voice, and Josh laughed nervously.  
“Oh, James. Don’t say things like that.” Leann said to the man, who seemed to be her husband. Upon further look, Josh did recognize him. “We’ll talk about all that tomorrow. Let’s just get you settled in for tonight first.” she confirmed and then smiled that motherly smile Josh had seen before, though his own mom had started looking a lot more...pitiful recently. 

And also, this woman wasn’t staring weird at him. She did glance at his hair every now and then, as well as his eyes(which didn’t have any violent amounts of makeup anyway), but only politely, and she didn’t sound bothered so far. That made him more nervous though, because that was what he expected.  
“Thanks.” Josh said and smiled back.  
“Oh, I guess I should go grab your bag!” his dad suddenly realized, and was out the door before anyone could say anything. Josh felt a bit in the wrong, still. He didn’t particularly like meeting new people, and especially not people like this, even though these ones seemed nice. But maybe that was what would usually bother him?  
“So you’re from LA, huh? Pretty big city. You look the type.” James said, and Josh felt at ease. Finally, they judged him by appearance. He felt at home.  
“James.” Leann warned and her husband looked a bit scared. It made Josh want to laugh, but he kept it in him.  
“It’s okay, really, Le- Mrs. Weekes.” Josh insisted.  
“Leann is fine, dear.” the woman smiled softly.  
“Okay. And I don’t really mind...I don’t mind the looks. I’ve gotten used to it, or whatever.” he shrugged and then felt how awkward he had made things, and quickly took on the responsibility to make things less awkward. “But, um...Arizona’s a lot less people, so far. Of course, I’ve only met two…” he tried, and the couple both laughed as if he was charming in some way. That was good.  
“There’ll be more. Mostly kids from neighboring towns. And our kids, of course. You remember Dallon, right?” Mr. Weekes asked, and Josh nodded. Since the last time he was asked this, he had started remembering better who Dallon Weekes was.  
“Yeah, I remember him. It’s been a while though. Five or six years?” he wondered out loud, and Leann nodded. “I’m sorry but, I actually don’t remember your other kids…” he said quietly. He didn’t want to ask anyone else, so he might as well.  
“Oh, our eldest son James has recently moved to Vegas, but Elle and Jordan are still around, troublesome as ever.” Mr. Weekes explained, and the names sounded familiar. Not just because his own little brother was called Jordan, too.  
“Right.” Josh said, and then yawned. His dad then appeared in the doorway with two bags.  
“Well, someone’s been packing.” Mr. Weekes said and Josh felt embarrassed.  
“It’s just the necessities.” he joked with a shrug and the couple laughed, making him feel a little better. 

Josh took hold of one bag, even though he didn’t particularly want to and would prefer for someone else to carry them but he didn’t want to live up the already created stereotype of himself. His dad carried the other one, and they both followed Leann up the stairs. Josh was glad he’d be staying in their house and not in a barn, sleeping in the hay or something. But he did wonder, if they already had kids, he could not possibly have his own room? Josh had never shared a room with anyone before, he was always alone if he wanted to. If he got a roommate, would they snore? Would they have to share a bed? Josh had shared beds with people(Brendon, for example) plenty of times, but he sort of needed to know them first(unlike Brendon)...

The top floor had a little hall with one door on each wall to the left, and then a little hallway into the right, which seemed to lead to two or maybe three more rooms. Josh counted. Dallon, Elle, Jordan, probably James from before, and a bathroom, hopefully. Maybe two siblings shared? That was pretty common, right? Then there would be two spare rooms. And someone had mentioned that there’d be three other people. But maybe not all of them were staying over? Hopefully not. One door was not completely closed, and walking past it, Josh thought he caught a glance of a person. A tall person. Was this mysterious shadow possibly his childhood not-really-friend Dallon? Josh didn’t pay it much thought, and got an answer to his questions upon getting into his own room. It was pretty spacey, two big wardrobes on each side and a large window at the end of the room with a desk below it, and one bed on each side. So he’d share with someone. Great. Still, he needed to ask.  
“Am I sharing rooms with someone?” he wondered, trying to sound as unbothered by it as possible.  
“Yes, sorry, is that a problem?” Leann asked, sounding concerned.  
“No, no, not at all. I just never have before. I don’t know if I snore.” he explained and Leann laughed at his joke again.  
“I’m sure it’ll be fine. The other boy’s been here before, but he’s only staying over this summer since his parents moved, but he still wanted to come over. He’s a very sweet person, and pretty funny. Not unlike yourself, it seems.” she explained, and Josh nodded. Didn’t sound terrible. Sweet people were often quiet, and he could dig with that, probably.  
“What’s his name?” he wondered, though he knew he’d find out eventually.  
“Tyler Joseph.” Leann said cheerfully, but there was a mellow tone or something under her voice. Josh ignored it.  
“Neat. Can’t wait to meet him.” he said, probably sarcastic, though he didn’t mean to be. Leann seemed to notice, but didn’t say anything about it. At least she picked up on those things.  
“He’ll probably arrive tomorrow or the day after.” she explained. “Now, I’m sure you’re tired, so I’ll leave you two to say goodbye and then you should get a good night’s sleep.” she said sweetly, nodding to Josh’s dad who had just been listening, looking around the room. Leann left, and Bill turned to his son. 

“This isn’t so bad, is it?” he asked, sounding hopeful.  
“I guess.” Josh answered, determined to stay stubborn, when it fact it didn’t seem that bad at all.  
“The summer will fly right by, and maybe you’ll learn something nice.” Bill shrugged, and Josh looked at him wondrously.  
“Like what?” he asked tiredly.  
“I don’t know...maybe you’ll learn how to ride a horse.” his dad joked, and Josh rolled his eyes but smiled.  
I know how to ride other things, he thought and almost snorted at himself, feeling a blush coming on. Lucky he didn’t say that out loud, though. Brendon would have died laughing if he was here. But he was...about 500 miles away. Way too far.  
“Doubt it.” Josh said, remembering the conversation he was in. “But we’ll see. See you at the end of the summer, sir.” he then said. He didn’t actually call his dad sir, only as a joke.  
“See you at the end of the summer, son. Good luck, have fun.” Bill smiled genuinely and gave him a light punch in the shoulder. “Bye, now.”  
“Bye. Goodnight.”  
“Goodnight.” 

The door shut and Josh heaved a long and heavy sigh. Ten weeks. Ten weeks wasn’t a lot of time. Two months. That sounded even less, even though it was technically more. Ten weeks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cool beans! 
> 
> Now we're taking off, and from now on I'll be updating less frequently, as these are chapters that are done. Now I'll only be posting chapters when I finish them, but hopefully I'll be able to stay active about it. Hope you enjoyed this chapter!


	4. "The Farm."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Josh gets shown around the ranch on which he is to stay the entire summer by the mysterious Dallon Weekes, who ends up being mostly annoying.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long to update! I'm a little dry on ideas and like...how to kick it off? But it's coming along :-)

Josh threw his head into his pillow angrily, letting out a muffled, quiet groan of annoyance. The sun was shining straight into the room and had been for probably the past hour, and even before that he hadn’t slept that well. He went to bed pretty quickly, texted Brendon for half an hour, giving him the few details of a first impression he had picked up so far, and then tried to sleep. Josh wasn’t an insomniac, but he was far from a narcoleptic too, so after probably more than an hour of twisting and turning in the bed, he fell asleep. He then woke up twice, and had been in that weird almost-sleep-state when you’re aware of what you’re thinking but you can’t really control it for an undecided amount of time. To say the least, he hadn’t had a great night’s sleep. Grumpily he picked up his phone from the floor where it was charging(before he had been worried there wouldn’t be electricity, he was very wrong, the house was well-equipped and although not as “modern” as his own, it was alright), and checked the time. 6:30AM. If he had been at home, he would sleep for another five hours from now, most definitely. But he could already hear people downstairs. This was a mistake. He wanted to go home. 

Josh stood up from the bed, his T-shirt hanging loosely on him. The house had been cool enough at night for him to sleep in more than just underwear. That was nice, because unlike his best friend, he preferred to wear clothes over not wearing clothes. He couldn’t even bring himself to think about what he would be doing today, hopefully nothing too tiring. Hopefully eat. Josh was hungry. Suddenly a knock came on the door and Josh jumped just about a mile into the air.   
“Hold on, I’m not dressed.” he said, his voice weak, and grabbed his jeans from yesterday from the desk chair.   
“Apologies. Just checking if you’re awake. There’s breakfast downstairs.” a voice behind the door said, and it wasn’t familiar, but somehow it was. Sharp but somehow laid back. Unmistakingly Dallon.   
“Okay, thanks.” Josh answered, and waited until probably-Dallon had walked away, and then pulled his jeans on and listened against the door for anyone, grabbed a small bag from his bigger one and then snuck out and headed to the bathroom, the room next to his. 

Josh gave himself one look in the mirror and almost shrieked. He looked terrible. He couldn’t believe he invented bags under the eyes, and was that a start of a breakout? Terrible. Quickly he got out his facial cleanser and got to work. But after washing his face, holding his primer lightly between his fingertips, he decided to wait with putting any makeup on. Josh was never one to back out from flaunting who he was, but he could wait. Meet a few people. Maybe getting stared at and judged wasn’t a great way to start these ten weeks, even he could admit that to himself. 

So he took his bag and left the bathroom to simply sneak back to his room again, but was instantly met with a collide into another person. His mind blank, Josh stumbled back in loss of words.   
“Sorry.” the person he had walked into spoke, and Josh looked up to see a half-familiar face, now a few heads taller than he remembered. “Oh, Josh. Sorry for walking into you.” Dallon spoke, his voice rough from just waking up, probably. Josh could feel his entire being go numb, because boy was he fine. They hadn’t seen each other in years, and last time they had been about the same height, pre-pubescent and annoying, avoiding each other. But now Josh had just walked straight into the guy, getting smacked in the face with some major hotness. It was so hard to not stare at his messy bed head or cry at his morning voice.   
“Ah, uhm- sorry me too. I mean, I’m sorry too.” he stumbled, flicking his eyes around. He usually wasn’t this awkward, and that only made it worse.   
“What’ you got there?” Dallon asked casually, glancing at the face shit makeup bag in Josh’s hands, who had forgotten he was even holding onto it.   
“Uhm, it’s, uh-” he started, but they were interrupted by a voice from the side.   
“Oh, good morning, boys! Are you coming or not?” Mrs. Weekes asked, raising an eyebrow from where she was poking up from the middle of the staircase. Josh was grateful for the rescue, it gave him a second to collect himself.   
“Yeah.” Dallon answered, scratching his head, a strand of hair falling over his forehead. Mrs. Weekes disappeared again, and Josh thought of a few witty things to say before he made a fool of himself further.   
“Were you waiting for me outside my door?” he joked, referring to how it had gone a few minutes since Dallon first came knocking.   
“No.” Dallon grinned, and didn’t say any more about it. Not the talkative type, was he? Well, at least he could take a joke, Josh thought. 

They went downstairs and were met by the smell of eggs and bacon, and Josh’s stomach growled suddenly. He was hungrier than he thought, but was so overwhelmed he didn’t dare to do anything. There were already two younger kids arguing about something at the table, one girl and one boy. Josh assumed they were Dallon’s younger siblings, Elle and Jordan. He didn’t recognize them, though. Mrs. Weekes gave a plate of food to Dallon as he walked past her, and Mr. Weekes was currently nowhere to be seen.   
“Josh, come sit down. And oh, don’t look so petrified.” Mrs. Weekes laughed quietly, preparing a plate for him. Josh relaxed a bit and accepted it as she reached it to him.   
“Thank you.” he smiled and she did the same, and then he went to sit down next to Dallon by the table. Elle and Jordan, who sat across from them, stopped talking about whatever it was that they were talking about and glanced at him. Josh felt uneasy, wondering what they were thinking without meaning to. It wasn’t like he cared about anyone’s opinion, or anything. He just wanted to know. Or whatever.   
“Elle, Jordan, you remember Josh right?” Mrs. Weekes introduced.  
“Obviously.” Jordan said, smiling at Josh and doing a little nod as a greeting. Josh did the same.   
“How do you remember? You were like six last time you saw each other.” Elle argued whilst eating. Josh felt out of place.   
“Well, I was aware of my surroundings when I was six.” Jordan argued back, and Josh got the feeling these two did not agree on a lot of things.   
“That has nothing to do with it.” Dallon poked in, and the two got quiet, eating their breakfast in peace. Josh was quickly picking up the personalities of these kids. 

“There we go, I’m going grocery shopping. Elle, Jordan, you behave and do your chores-” Mrs. Weekes ordered, gesturing as everything being in place.   
“Buy me fruit loops.” Jordan asked, and Josh tried not to laugh. He reminded him of his own little brother. They even shared the same name.   
“No requests. Dallon, show Josh around later, will you? I’ll be back in an hour.” she asked, and Josh felt awkward about being talked about as if he wasn’t there.   
“Of course.” Dallon answered, not looking up. Josh tried not to be offended. It seemed like Dallon didn’t want much to do with him. What was his problem now, then? When they were little it had been the same, they had been around the same age and therefore expected to hang out, but because Dallon was a year older he tried to avoid Josh best he could. They were five years older now. If Dallon was as stubborn now, they were going to have issues. 

Mrs. Weekes was soon out the door and Josh panicked slightly, feeling the seven seconds before an awkward silence was official grow in the room. It wasn’t his responsibility to clear it, but he was the reason and therefore felt guilty. Oh man, if Brendon was here he’d know just what to say. Ask about the house? The animals? The goddamn weather?  
“I like your hair.” Elle commented suddenly and Josh took a second to register what she had said, as it was the last thing he expected to hear.   
“Thanks.” he responded, smiling brighter than he intended. It was nice to know they weren’t against it, at least.   
“Do you dye it yourself?” she continued casually, and Josh nodded.   
“Yeah. This is my natural color, so I bleach it too.” Josh said, gesturing to the side of his head where his hair was shorter and dark brown.  
“I know that.” she rolled her eyes and giggled, and Josh felt dumb for explaining to her, but grinned too. “Maybe I can convince mom and dad to let me dye mine.” she thought out loud. Josh suddenly felt proud of himself for inspiring someone. That was sort of new.   
“Doubt it.” Jordan snorted and Elle glared at him.   
“I’ll dye yours in your sleep if you defy me.” she muttered dramatically and Josh snorted in laughter. He and Elle shared a look and laughed to themselves. These two were not so bad, afterall. More fun than grumpy next to him, so far, Josh thought. But despite him being so wannabe-mysterious, Dallon was still good-looking, and that was frustrating. 

Dallon was also very tall, which proved itself to be true once again when the giant stood up to leave his dishes by the sink, already finished. Of course he hadn’t taken part in the conversation, so he had had plenty of time to eat in peace while Josh got acquainted with his more fun little siblings. The front door opened again, and Josh only caught a movement in the corner of his eye before a creature was stood with it’s paws in his lap, waving it’s tail in a propeller-like action, reminding Josh of a helicopter.   
“Faith! Down, girl.” Jordan demanded, and the light brown dog hopped down from his lap and barked softly. A golden retriever or something alike, Josh guessed. He had never had a dog, and he didn’t know anyone who had one, so he was definitely not used to it. But he wasn’t afraid of her, despite sitting frozen in the chair, staring at her.   
“Good morning, kids!” a man beamed as he entered the house, two more dogs coming into the kitchen. One instantly starting barking violently at Josh, making him frown and lean away. It was a smaller dog with ragged, white fur and an unpleasant expression. Josh didn’t dare to move.   
“Quiet, Yeller. Quiet!” Elle said, but the dog wouldn’t listen, keeping up with the scolding.   
“Hey.” Dallon snapped in a lower voice than usual, and the dog called Yeller listened, sitting down by his feet as Dallon was leaned back against the counter.   
“Good name.” Josh commented bitterly. He wished these people had some better control of their dogs. He remembered barks from inside when he arrived yesterday and guessed it must have been Yeller. The last dog walked by Mr. Weekes side with a cold, unreadable atmosphere. It was a large, German shepherd-looking dog with mostly black fur. He was by far the most intimidating dog Josh had seen in real life. At least Yeller was pretty cute when he wasn’t barking. This dog looked serious.   
“Hello, Josh! Slept well?” Mr. Weekes asked kindly with that typical fatherly tone. Josh felt like he had forgotten what that sounded like, but pushed that thought away.   
“Good enough, I’ll get used to it.” he shrugged and smiled to assure he was doing okay. At least he didn’t lie.   
“Yes of course.” he nodded, then turned to the table. “The day’s spilling away, kids. Jordan, the gate on the southern enclosure’s broken, could you fix that? Good. Elle, you’re on horse feeding duty. We’ll release at ten, so you ride with. Dallon, you-” Mr. Weekes cut off from his ordering, and Josh snapped out of his impressed observing as the kids accepted their chores and were off.   
“I’m showing Josh around.” Dallon smirked, taking a sip of a glass of water, making him look like a total asshole. Josh wasn’t sure of this was going to be a fun day or not.   
“Right.” his father sighed. “Well, get on it and you’ll gather tonight.” he pointed at his son who kissed his teeth and nodded. Josh sat still, unknowing of what to do. 

Mr. Weekes walked in and the dogs scattered. Josh stood up unsurely and went over to leave his plate and glass by the sink like everyone else, feeling stared down by Dallon as he did it. He wanted to ask what his problem was, because he was obviously a douche, but couldn’t bring himself to do it. Man, where was his usual sass? He got nervous when everyone knew what they were doing except for him.   
“Ready to go, city-boy?” Dallon asked, but he didn’t sound very enthusiastic. Josh sighed. So that was what it was about. Was he just stereotyping him, taking him for a bitchy wuss just because he came from LA? I’m not saying I’m not a bitchy wuss, but at least get to know me first, Josh thought.   
“Sure thing, hick.” Josh answered coldly as they were now alone. If Dallon wanted an enemy, he could have one. But the fact that he answered with only a smirk and then exited through the front door got Josh so heated he could barely keep it in. But he would. 

Although it was early, the day was already becoming warm. Josh had a long-sleeved buttondown in light green and mom jeans, so he could roll anything up that needed to be. He couldn’t quite remember how warm it got here in Arizona, but it probably wasn’t much worse than California anyway. They were somewhere between Sedona and Flagstaff, or a little bit off the highway. There had been fields of grass, but it was rather tough and pale grass mixed with scrawny shrubs and maybe a cactus here and there. Josh wondered half-heartedly how one could keep cattle on grounds like these, but apparently you could, and he wasn’t going to question it. Speaking of the cattle, out of all the animals Josh were going to meet, the cows must be the worst. He had definitely never met one, and he could only imagine what they smelled like. Wild beasts, if he didn’t jump off a cliff this summer he’d be kicked in the temple by a cow, no question. Or a horse. A dedicated chicken could probably kill him too. The only animal Josh was truly used to were cats, but he hadn’t caught as much as a glimpse of one yet. And as for smell, Josh was very slowly getting used to the scent of hay and dust, as it seemed everything was made of one of them, or both, here. He hadn’t been expecting clay houses to be exact, but although the houses were nice, they weren’t villas. God, Josh missed the marble floor in the kitchen and the green, green grass on the lawn that was always neatly cut, and the pool. Man, he missed the pool.   
“So uh, this is our house, where we live. Obviously.” Dallon started, nodding toward the house and squinting his eyes against the sun. Josh realized he forgot his shades in his suitcase. Stupid.   
“It used to be smaller, I remember.” Josh answered, not caring about being Dallon’s enemy for a second.   
“Yeah.” he agreed and then walked off without warning. Josh sighed and followed, instantly regretting not being more rude. 

He followed Dallon around like a lost puppy for a while, being shown the stables and enclosures, seeing a few horses in each in the far end of it, grazing mindlessly. It was hard to decide their size, but they truly looked like something out of a western film. They weren’t skinny, but they were somehow very pointy and roughed up at the same time. Josh watched his step very carefully not to step in any horse shit. Or any other animal, for that matter. They had things Josh hadn’t heard the name of before and was sure to forget, like paddock, which was an enclosure just for riding. Soon they reached the enclosure which Josh had heard a little while ago. That’s right, heard. Snorting and mooing now and then, stomping around and so on. Cows. Many cows. Many pointy horns. Josh stayed back while Dallon leaned on the fence.   
“Uh...are you not scared of...getting stabbed to death?” he asked sarcastically. “Or are you just so tired of all this that it would be fine? Because I understand.” he then continued, seeing Dallon hang his head and smile that annoying smile. Damn it, be offended, Josh thought.   
“By these gals? Not a chance.” Dallon shook his head and scratched one of the cow’s heads. It didn’t seem to mind. “That’s the end of the tour. Now I have things to do.” Dallon suddenly said and stretched his unrealistically long body up, showing a little part of his lower stomach. Josh was conflicted. Whilst Dallon wasn’t a very fun person, he had absolutely no idea what to do if not hang after him like he had done the last hour.   
“Don’t you get warm?” Josh asked, and Dallon turned his head.   
“Huh?”   
“You’re wearing all black.” It was true, he was. Josh hadn’t really thought about it until now. Black jeans(not skinny jeans, but close enough) and a black T-shirt. His hair was very dark too, he must be burning up.   
“I understand why you would think so, but I’m actually pretty cool.” Dallon finished with a smart grin and Josh swore on his life he would punch the guy in the face if he wasn’t already walking away. “You don’t have to do anything today I think. My parents are gonna put up a list of chores later.” Dallon called as he wandered back to the house, hands in his pockets.   
“What am I supposed to do, then?” Josh called back, not making any attempt to follow.   
“How should I know? Go say hello to the horses. Surely they’d appreciate a good laugh.” and with that he was gone. Josh gasped at the insult and was frozen where he stood in shock for a moment. Laugh? Really? If he had a problem, he could say it straight to his face. Homophobic piece of- 

Josh didn’t finish the thought, turning around and thundering off in another direction. This was the worst decision of his life. How he was he supposed to spend an entire summer with these people? He couldn’t stand Dallon Weekes. Luckily Dallon Weekes didn’t seem to be able to stand him either, so maybe they could avoid each other to some extent. But Josh hadn’t even met everyone yet, had he? There were more teenage boys from the countryside, and God damn it, he was going to share room with one. He had to go home, he had to call his parents, he just-   
“Excuse me?” a mellow voice came from his side as he walked hastily across the ground toward who knew where. It would have looked dumb, so maybe it was lucky he was being stopped. Josh turned to the building next to him, which was a stable, and to his surprise he saw a horse stood in the middle of it. Instantly Josh jumped back, because that horse was going to run full speed at him any second and kill- “Sorry, did I scare you?” the person from before asked, and Josh tore his eyes from the murderous glare of the red horse, who had flung it’s head into the air at the sight of him. It wanted blood.   
“Huh? No, no worries. What- uh, what?” Josh stammered, taking another step back as the horse stepped from side to side worriedly, and Josh could see that it had ropes stuck to the thing around it’s head, that were attached to the entrance of the stable. That was a little calming. The guy who was talking to him softly patted the horse’s neck and spoke in a hushed tone. Josh felt lost.  
“Oh, wait! Are you the new kid? I’m sorry, this one’s been giving me a work out this morning.” the kid suddenly exclaimed calmly, smiling in a warm and genuine type of way.   
“It’s okay. I’m Josh.” Josh introduced himself awkwardly and was about to approach to shake hands, or at least not be ten feet away from the guy when talking, but when the horse snorted loudly he ended up taking a step back again. The kid laughed and stroked it’s neck again.   
“Don’t worry about her, she’s just a drama queen. I’m Patrick. This is Hurricane.” the kid explained, and Josh smiled softly. 

Patrick was about his own height, had strawberry blond hair and a bubbly and sweet appearance in general. He didn’t have an accent either, so thank goodness, and personality-wise he seemed far nicer than his horse or Dallon Weekes. Conclusion: Dallon Weekes was a horse. Josh smirked at himself.   
“Is she your own, or…?” Josh was unsure what to talk about. What the hell do you talk about to these people?  
“Yeah, unfortunately.” Patrick joked, that pure smile on his face still. Hurricane didn’t seem to pick up the sarcasm, tugging her head up violently. “Sorry.” he apologized to her, and it reminded Josh of how Ashley could be with her cat Snowflake. Talking to him as if he was a person, and Josh would think it was weird, but he could catch himself doing it too. “I was wondering if you could fetch me her boots? They’re in the tack, on a shelf to the right. Has her name on it.” Patrick asked and Josh could feel a desire to set himself on fire grow.   
“...The what in the what?” he muttered, and Patrick laughed again. He was awfully smiley, but it wasn’t a bad thing. It was still genuine.   
“Boots, they’re these protective cap-things for her legs. The tack is the room where we keep the saddles and stuff, it’s down the stable to the right. I’m sorry but, do you have any idea what anything is here?” Patrick explained, and looked wondrous. Josh would be offended, even though it was true, but this guy was just one of those you couldn’t be mad at.   
“Nope. I’ll try my best.” Josh agreed with a sigh and moved forward hesitantly. He had to get past this horse. Her name was Hurricane, for goodness’ sake.   
“Just go under here.” Patrick advised, lifting the rope that kept her stuck to the wall. Josh was quick to slip under and hurry down the corridor. 

The stable wasn’t very complicated, just little rooms for the horses on the left side where they had a little space outside to move around in, separated from each other by a fence. They were all empty now though, so Josh ignored the name signs hanging on each of the gates and instead focused on finding this “tack”. It was as Patrick described to the right, and luckily the door was open. It smelled differently here than in the rest of the stable, where the scent of hay and other unfamiliar ones were heavier than anywhere else. Instead it smelled like leather, and Josh couldn’t say he was a little bit intimidated by the saddles and all the other things he didn’t know the names of. He thought there were just a saddle and reins, or whatever that thing around the horse’s head, was called. Apparently there were a lot of other things too. And the saddles were larger than he thought they’d be, heavy and full of straps and other details. It resembled broidery, markings burned into the leather. And the reins looked like one big tangle of straps and metal parts, and Josh wondered how anyone could distinguish anything on it. Kudos to horse-riders. 

He found the boots, or what he thought were the boots at least, on a shelf where the Hurricane’s name was written on a piece of tape. As he returned, Josh was stopped once more by the intimidation of the horse herself. He did not like being behind her, as he had heard somewhere that you should never walk behind a horse as they will kick you. He didn’t even dare to speak, because he might upset her. Patrick hadn’t noticed him yet, grabbing a saddle from where he had probably hung it earlier on a stool of some kind and swung onto Hurricane’s back. She snorted and stepped around, but Patrick worked efficiently somehow. Josh was still in somewhat awe, seeing as how this kid was only his own age but behaved so professionally with his horse. He must have been riding since he was born or something. Having his own horse and everything! Josh could even forget to feed Snowflake sometimes.   
“Yeah, those are the ones! Thanks...Josh, was it?” Patrick asked, reaching out to grab the boots.   
“Yeah. Uh, how...how do I get around her?” he asked quietly, looking worriedly as Hurricane’s hind legs. Hooves, specifically.   
“You walk, of course.” Patrick giggled, straightening out the reins on Hurricane. Josh swallowed as an answer and took a few steps forward but to the side, following the wall until he got out of kicking distance and close enough to give Patrick the boots. “See, there you go. No worries.” 

But oh, oh there were worries. Josh just slipped past Patrick to get out of the cramped space between the horse and the wall and out into the free, but apparently his movements were too quick, or something alike. A sense of freedom went over him as he got out on the other side, but heard Hurricane snort behind him and felt a tug in his shirt, pulling him back and then getting knocked forward. In surprise he couldn’t do much but stumble into the dust, and was soon on flat on the ground with his face in the dust. Josh didn’t even care, he was so embarrassed he was okay with being stomped to death now. Patrick was laughing, but obviously trying to keep it in.   
“I’m so sorry! She’s usually not like this, I swear!” he apologized between snorts. He snorted when he laughed, that was cute.   
“It’s okay.” Josh said and rolled over to his back, and Hurricane raised her head high and let out a long, screech-like neigh. “Even the horse’s laughing at me.” he sighed and leaned his head back against the ground.   
“Aren’t you going to get up?” Patrick asked, wiping tears from his eyes.   
“No, no. Just let her stomp on me and be done with it.” Josh responded, raising his arms into the air as a sign of giving up.   
“I might have to, I’m leading her out.” Patrick answered and Josh looked up to see him detaching the ropes that kept Hurricane stuck from her reins, and quickly rolled out of the way and got up. “It was nice to meet you, Josh. I hope you have a good summer here.” he smiled as he led his horse past him, who was now more calm.   
“Yeah, see you later.” Josh sighed but smiled too.   
“Sorry about your shirt. It didn’t seem to rip. You might want to dust yourself off, though!” Patrick finished and was then too far away for Josh to bother calling after him. 

Josh did as told, brushing his hands down his shirt and pants. Pale thick dust flew off in clouds, making him cough as he did it. So, now he had met a horse. They were even worse than he imagined, and he wondered why in the hell anyone would want to spend any time with them, let alone ride them. Though Hurricane was a bit of a bother, Josh wished he could keep hanging out with Patrick. He didn’t appreciate being laughed at, and maybe he wished for him to keep his horse under better control, but it was better than being alone and he seemed pretty friendly. 

A car drove up next to the house and Josh recognized Mrs. Weekes as she stepped out of the car. Seeing as he had absolutely nothing to do and would rather do something boring than awkwardly just stand where he was, as well as there being no other kids around at the moment, he hurried over to her.   
“Hello, Mrs. Weekes.” he greeted her politely, not wanting to seem like he was having the worst time of his life since she so badly wanted to make sure he didn’t.   
“Oh, hello Josh! Dallon done showing you around?” she asked and Josh approached further, seeing an amount of bags in the platform space of the pick-up truck. It was a large, red car that was probably older than it looked, a classic appearance but in good shape. Josh wasn’t that good at cars, but he was better at cars than at horses.   
“Yep. Don’t know where he is now, though.” Josh admitted, trying his absolute best not to spit the words out.   
“Abandoned you, did he? He can be like that. He’s not very social all the time.” Mrs. Weekes excused, lifting a couple of bags down.   
“I don’t know if he likes me very much.” Josh shrugged, walking over and lifting down the last two bags.   
“Oh, don’t say that. Thank you. He’s just...a little hard to reach, you know? As his mom I can’t help but to worry but I think it’s just his personality. You’re a happy and very helpful boy, though! Trying to befriend him won’t be the worst decision of your life. He’s sweet somewhere in there.” the woman explained as the two of them carried the bags inside. Josh was a bit taken aback with how objective and aware she was, much different from his own parents. They would just complain and nag at him if he was asocial(they sent him off to Arizona, for God’s sake), but she tried to understand why her son was being an asshole and let him be one a little bit. Although it was very annoying to be with assholes, Josh wished his parents could let him be an asshole too. Otherwise he’d just try to be nice and get exhausted with that and accidently be an asshole anyway. Maybe he should try to be patient with Dallon. Still, they could always avoid each other as much as possible. 

“I met someone called Patrick, too. By the stable, he had a horse called Hurricane.” Josh said, lifting in a couple of milk cartons into the fridge.   
“Oh, yes. Patrick keeps her here, but he lives in Flagstaff. Now after a couple of years he’s practically in charge of the stable! Above the stove, dear.” Mrs. Weekes corrected as Josh was about to put a shaker of some kind of seasoning in the fridge as he was listening instead of focusing on the unpacking of groceries.   
“Sorry.” he muttered and felt awkward as he did as told.   
“No worries. Patrick broke a couple of the horses here.” Mrs. Weekes explained and Josh instantly looked up at her in some sort of horror.   
“He...he what? Did he hurt them?” he muttered, and the woman laughed for longer than he had expected, making him feel awkward.   
“No, to break a horse means to teach to be ridden. It’s a misleading word for it though, we don’t hurt the horses at all. Just...gain their trust.” she smiled, and Josh sighed impatiently.   
“Sorry. I don’t know anything.” he apologized and Mrs. Weekes placed a hand on his shoulder, pausing from her unpacking.   
“Don’t be, you’ll learn fast.” she comforted. I’d learn faster if that asshat Dallon was a bit more social and less proud, Josh thought grumpily. “I’m making lunch now so you can go come up with something to do. Ask Jordan about Ferdinand, for example.” she winked and Josh looked wondrously at her, but decided not to question it. He knew that Ferdinand was a cartoon bull, and hoped to dear God he wasn’t going to see a real bull now. His hair was pink, that was close enough to red to anger a full-grown monster-cow. 

Walking outside onto the large front porch, Josh was suddenly met with that large, intimidating dog lying next to the door. The two shared a long look, the dog sat up and Josh thought back to that time someone had said that when dogs stared you in the eyes they wanted to fight. He didn’t dare to avert his gaze as the dog sat up, and by the time it started growling, Josh had already turned his heel and was sprinting across the lawn, hearing loud barking after him.   
“Help! It’s going to kill me!” he called, racing around the corner and to his relief seeing Jordan leaned back against a fence. The boy looked over at Josh who came running and laughed.   
“Ballyhoo, stay!” he called, and instantly Josh turned around and saw that the german shepherd had stopped. He was already out of breath, though he had only run around the house. “Come here, boy.” Jordan said, whistling softly. Now the large dog came over with a much friendlier expression.  
“Ballyhoo?” Josh questioned. “You named this monster Ballyhoo?”  
Jordan scratched Ballyhoo’s ear, and then the dog lied down at his feet. “He’s not a monster, he’s a guard dog.”   
“Then why’d he chase me? He met me yesterday.” Josh asked, staying on a safe distance from the dog, who was still looking at him weird.   
“Because you ran, probably.” Jordan laughed, and Josh sighed deeply. “He usually follows the cattle out and stays with them, so he isn’t exactly meant to be a pet, but we ended up babying him anyway. It was mostly Elle’s fault.” Jordan explained and Josh laughed nervously.   
“Sure.” he agreed sarcastically, thinking Jordan was probably as responsible. “Well I’m glad you did, otherwise he’d rip me to shreds.”   
“Not unless you threaten the cows.” Jordan snorted, which reminded Josh of what he was doing in the first place.   
“Hey, your mom said something about...about uh, Ferdinand?” he asked and Jordan’s eyes lit up.   
“Oh yeah! He’s not here though, but I’ll show you tomorrow.” Jordan promised, and Josh realized he wasn’t to get any confirmation of what Ferdinand could be until tomorrow, so he stayed quiet. 

The day went by rather quickly after that, Jordan decided to show Josh around a little more thoroughly than Dallon had done, explaining exactly how everything worked as well as what Josh would probably be doing. He was here to help out and got payed to do chores, after all. Sigh.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! It was a long one, and it was mostly filler. I was supposed to sliiightly introduce Tyler this chapter, but it got too long so I ended up not doing that. Have it to look forward to for next chapter though!


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